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The '''Sioux''' Nation(s) are a group of [[Indian]] Nations collected under one rubric due to language, associations, traditions and an Act of [[Congress]] that defined them as one "Nation".  The three tribes are the Lakota, the Dakota, and the Nakota.   

The '''Sioux''' Nation(s) are a group of [[Indian]] Nations collected under one rubric due to language, associations, traditions and an Act of [[Congress]] that defined them as one "Nation".  The three tribes are the Lakota, the Dakota, and the Nakota.   

The Dakota (Santee Sioux or Easter Sioux) had their traditional homelands in and around the [[Great Lakes]] regions of the North East, most concentrated in and around Minnesota ('Smoky Water' in the Dakota Dialect). They were traditionally a woodland people, subsisting on hunting and fishing but also some varieties of [[agriculture]]. <ref>This is notable, as the facts of who the Dakota were stand in contract to how they were presented over time, with such concepts attributed to them as "We do not cut into Mother Earth". </ref> As Eastern Americans began to explore, they pushed the Dakota north and west, into what was named  the "Dakota territory", but was in fact populated more by the Lakota.

The Dakota (Santee Sioux or Easter Sioux) had their traditional homelands in and around the [[Great Lakes]] regions of the North East, most concentrated in and around Minnesota ('Smoky Water' in the Dakota Dialect). Unlike the Lakota, the Dakota were traditionally a woodlands people, who both hunted and used limited agriculture. Upon contact with Europeans, the Dakota became heavily involved in the local fur trade. During the 18th and 19th centuries, competition with other tribes and trade restrictions enforced by the Hudson's Bay Company relocated the Dakota to Southwestern Minnesota and threatened their traditional lifestyle. By 1862, the Dakota were confined to a small area of Southwestern Minnesota upon which white immigrants were beginning to encroach. Although some began to embrace this much more sedentary, agricultural based lifestyle, most became dependent on U.S. Government food supplies. As the fur trade in Minnesota dried up, the Dakota became heavily indebted to local fur traders, who began confiscating government subsidies as payment. In 1862, in response to this situation, large numbers of Dakota rose up in insurrection. After the failure of the insurrection, the Dakota were either put on reservations in Minnesota, dispersed westward into the Dakota Territory, or permanently resided north of the border in what would become Manitoba.

The Nakota or Yankton Sioux were a small subset of the Sioux Nations.   

The Nakota or Yankton Sioux were a small subset of the Sioux Nations.